How Simon is using providing a safe platform for digital identity where they can connect people through their transaction history to protocols looking for users like them.
“DApps don’t have users; they have strangers.”
— Simon, founder of Solana ID
Last week I caught Simon—better known across Crypto-Twitter as @solbrother—literally inside Solana Labs’ New York headquarters. He’d just landed for Solana Accelerate NYC and still had his suitcase parked next to the mic. What followed was a 75-minute masterclass in:
- Why identity is the missing piece in crypto’s consumer puzzle
- How Solana ID converts fragmented on-chain footprints into a single, monetizable reputation
- What’s shipping next (an “ID Display Network” and a Foundation-backed upgrade)
Below is the full deep-dive for the wonks: tech rationale, token economics, privacy trade-offs, and the macro tailwinds that could make 2025 the year Solana graduates from “meme-coin chain” to Web3’s default consumer stack.
1. Origin Story: From Chain-Agnostic to “All-in on Solana”
| Year | Milestone | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | DSID (Decentralized Self-ID) formed as chain-agnostic research project. | Early exploration of ZK proofs + wallet linking; no clear go-to-market. |
| 2023 | Pivoted at Renaissance Hackathon → re-branded Solana ID. | Won category prize; chose Solana for dev tooling, on-chain volumes, and community openness. |
| Dec 2024 | Launched $SOLID token (peaked at $70 M FDV). | Token = second “product” that funds dev and aligns users; later slammed by altcoin liquidity drought. |
| June 2025 | Live with 45k+ ID holders, 80+ partner DApps, and first cohort of perks (fee rebates, NFT allow-lists, etc.). | Real-world traction & data network ready to monetize. |
2. The Core Product in Plain English
a. SOLID Score (0 – 1,000)
- Rolls up every connected wallet’s on-chain actions (trading, minting, staking, lending) into a single numeric reputation.
- Weighted to reward breadth + depth (e.g., multiple DeFi venues, consistent activity).
- Higher score → higher Tier (Bronze → Diamond) → richer partner perks.
b. Behavior Badges
- Yes/No flags that surface what you actually do on Solana:
- “DeFi Power-User” = $50k+ cumulative volume.
- “NFT De-gen” = ≥50 mints across ≥5 collections.
- “Staked Since ’22” = ≥12-month uninterrupted stake.
- Badges let DApps target campaigns with surgical precision instead of blanket airdrops.
c.
ZK Vault vs. One-Click OAuth
| Path | UX Cost | Privacy Level | Ideal User |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZK-Proof Browser Extension | Install + confirm | Max (protocol never sees raw data) | Crypto privacy purists |
| Web2 API OAuth (coming) | Two taps | Moderate (data hits Solana ID DB) | Mainstream users who just want perks |
Key quote: “UX first, privacy second. If you invert that order you fail, because nobody onboards.” —Simon
3. Why DApps Care (and Pay)
Problem: A growth team at, say, Drift is budgeting $50k for user acquisition. Today their options are:
- Spray $TOKEN rewards on a Zealy quest—95 % goes to low-intent wallets or Sybil farms.
- Hope for organic Twitter virality (good luck).
With Solana ID they can:
- Filter wallets with DeFi_PowerUser = TRUE AND SOLID > 700 AND No prior Drift TXs.
- Drop a targeted “0 % maker fee for 30 days” perk that appears the moment those wallets connect to Jupiter, Birdeye, or any site in the upcoming ID Display Network.
- Pay only for redemptions, not impressions.
Result: acquisition CAC drops, user LTV rises, and the user is the one paid to show up—not the ad network.
4. Token Economics Crash-Course
- Ticker: $SOLID
- Genesis Supply: 1 B
- Utility Today: Staking → boosts max Tier cap and unlocks premium badge groups; revenue share from B2B API calls.
- Headwinds: Liquidity exodus post-Trump memecoin season; thin books exaggerate price swings.
- Simon’s fix: More on-chain sink mechanisms + cross-DApp staking benefits (teased but not disclosed).
Personal take: the dual-product reality (token + protocol) doubles execution risk but also creates a built-in evangelist class—token holders want every DApp to integrate Solana ID.
5. Tech Nuggets & Builder Insights
| Topic | Simon’s Take |
|---|---|
| Rust vs. Solidity | Rust is harder but yields safer, longer-lived contracts—mirrors Web2’s shift from PHP to Go/Rust. |
| Data Indexing | “Pulling full_wallet_history in real-time on Solana is non-trivial; we abstract that out for DApps so they don’t rebuild The Graph in-house.” |
| “Solana is a Privacy Chain” meme | Comes from the practical difficulty of parsing high-throughput ledger data, not actual privacy guarantees. |
| Multi-Chain Future? | Possible white-label spin-outs (ETH L2, Sui, Monad) but focus remains on Solana until network effects plateau. |
6. Upcoming Releases & Dates to Watch
- Solana Foundation Collab (late-June)
- Rumored protocol-level identity primitive (think ENS-like but cross-wallet).
- Could feed directly into SOLID Score and the ID API.
- ID Display Network (July-Aug beta)
- Partners: Jupiter, Meteora, Tensor, select NFT launchpads.
- UX: visit partner → site pings Solana ID → banner/tooltip shows live perk (no redirect).
- Social-Connect Page (Q3)
- Native Twitter / Discord / Telegram OAuth; optional ZK route remains.
- Token Utility Patch (Q3)
- Staking v2 + in-app spend hooks (e.g., boost badge visibility, ad-free analytics dashboard).
7. Macro Tailwinds (Why Timing Looks Good)
| Signal | Impact on Solana ID |
|---|---|
| US FIT-21 stable-coin framework moving through Congress. | Clearer rules → banks & fintechs more willing to integrate on-chain identity hooks. |
| Coinbase / Fidelity lobbying for crypto-friendly administration. | Reduced “Operation Choke Point” risk; startups can open bank accounts again. |
| Solana performance roadmap (Firedancer + 100× throughput) | More users → more wallets to score → larger B2B TAM for Solana ID API. |
| Consumer UX breakthroughs (Jupiter Mobile, Phantom Pay, Solana Pay-POS pilots) | Identity layer becomes indispensable once PoS-payments hit retail. |
8. Big-Picture Takeaways
- Identity isn’t an “NFT avatar”—it’s behavioral metadata. Wallet activity, social clout, and even KYC proofs can coexist without doxxing the human.
- Marketing efficiency is crypto’s next unlock. Airdrops aren’t going away, but precision airdrops will out-compete blanket ones.
- UX vs. Privacy is a spectrum, not a binary. Solana ID bets most users will trade some privacy for a one-click experience—while still letting die-hards go full ZK.
- Tokens still matter—but require active product management. $SOLID’s price lull is a case study in how liquidity cycles can distract teams; the fix is baked-in utility, not tweets.
- Network effects decide the winners. Solana’s dev velocity and consumer lean give identity projects here a head-start other chains will struggle to match.
Solana Weekly 